Husbands, Ramsammy win

ONTARIO: Barbados Patrick Husbands and Trinidad and Tobago’s Emile Ramsammy shared the first two races at Woodbine on Saturday before very poor weather conditions in the Toronto area forced the cancellation of the rest of the thoroughbred programme. The track’s jockeys felt the inclement weather was making conditions unsafe for horse and rider after the first two races and track officials decided to shut down the rest of the meet.

The afternoon’s feature race, the (CAN)$138,250 Kennedy Road Stakes, will not be re-scheduled, as the final card of the 167-day Woodbine campaign had been written for yesterday programme. Husbands kicked home the 5-4 favourite Royal Distraction in the day’s opener by 1-1/4 lengths when the five-year-old, chestnut mare drew clear late to post a winning time of one minute, 46.73 seconds. Royal Distraction contested the lead on the inside over the first quarter of 1-1/16 mile trip and edged clear in the middle of the backstretch. She was engaged late in the turn and was headed at the top of the stretch, but battled back to win. Ramsammy then landed the second race with the 2-1 chance Verne’s Baby by 3-3/4 lengths, after the two-year-old, dark bay colt shook clear at the top of the stretch and held sway under a drive to win in 58.03 secs.

Verne’s Baby was hustled to an early lead and set the pace under pressure from Cool Diggins, under Husbands, on the turn and was engaged at the quarter pole before showing a good turn of speed to stretch his lead and win. The victories for Husbands and Ramsammy were only of academic interests. The jockeys’ championship was sown up weeks ago, as Todd Kabel is 20 wins ahead of the Barbadian (155-135) through Saturday. Kabel, a native of Manitoba has a chance to equal and break a 38-year-old record. He has 35 stakes wins at Woodbine, just one shy of the mark set by the late Avelino Gomez 38 years ago.